Residents approve of new Steer Town High School design
STEER TOWN, St Ann – Residents have voiced their approval of the design for the new Steer Town High School to be built in this parish in time for the 2009 academic year.
Dozens of residents turned out Thursday at the Steer Town New Testament Church of God to hear a presentation by the Education Transformation Project team from the Ministry of Education and Youth, on the project.
“It is a welcome addition because anything that can enhance the quality of education of the children in the constituency that I represent, I welcome,” said member of parliament for North East St Ann, Shahine Robinson.
Robinson said most of the schools in the constituency operate on a shift system, which suggests that they are overcrowded. The constituency needs classroom space more than anything else, she said. “So the building of a new high school in Steer Town is more than welcome.”
People’s National Party (PNP) caretaker for the constituency, Oswest Senior Smith, welcomed the proposed new school and asked residents to take care of the institution when it is completed.
“It has been long in coming,” he said, “what we would ask is that the construction proceeds speedily; and what we would ask is that the residents embrace this institution as their own, exercise ownership over it, protect it and treasure it because they have yearned for such a long time to receive it.”
Senior Smith said that with a new health centre in the finishing stages, it was good that a high school was being built to complement that.
The comments by the political representatives mirrored the general view at the meeting, with persons expressing delight at the proposed new school and how the project will be carried out.
The construction of the new school, one of three new high schools the Government is planning to build in St Ann to ease the shortage of high school space in the parish, is to be put to tender in June and is expected to be completed in 18 months.
The new school has been designed to accommodate 1,000 students similar to the other two proposed for Bamboo and Discovery Bay.
In August 2006, the ministry announced the project, which falls under the Government’s $5 billion transformation project for the education sector.
Under the education transformation project, several schools in St Ann and St Mary have been earmarked for refurbishing.
St Ann already has seven high schools in St Hilda’s, York Castle and Brown’s Town High, all in Brown’s Town; Aabuthnott Gallimore in Alexandria, Ocho Rios High and Marcus Garvey Technical in St Ann’s Bay; and Ferncourt in Claremont.
